Dr. Hunter Peckham |
New funding enhances Northeast Ohio's leadership in developing groundbreaking technology to restore areas of function to the body.
The Biomedical Research and Commercialization
Program (BRCP) of the State of Ohio Third Frontier
Program has announced that Case Western Reserve
University and its partners, The Cleveland Clinic
Foundation, NDI Medical, Inc., and MetroHealth
Medical Center of Cleveland will receive $8 million
to extend the research capabilities of the Ohio
Neurostimulation and Neuromodulation Partnership
(ONNP).
The partnership is dedicated to the commercialization
of neurostimulation technologies that address critical
neurological disorders. Led by P. Hunter Peckham,
Donnell Professor of Biomedical Engineering and
Orthopaedics at Case, principal investigator and
executive director of the Cleveland Functional
Electrical Stimulation (FES) Center, the ONNP will
use the funding to develop and market devices for
peripheral nerve stimulation, cardiac function,
motor function and pelvic control.
Peckham is known throughout the world for his research in the utilization
of functional electrical stimulation to restore hand/arm control technique
to individuals of high-level spinal cord injury (quadriplegia). Investigators
at Case, the FES Center and its partners also pioneered the use of electrical
stimulation for walking.
"There is a worldwide revolution in electronic
medicine and ONNP has identified significant market
opportunities for specific clinical applications
of neurostimulation," Peckham said. "ONNP
is leveraging the research activities at our collaborating
academic and clinical institutions to develop products
to meet these and future needs. We're honored to
receive this generous funding from the state of
Ohio. The continued support from the Third Frontier
Program is a vote of confidence and validation
of the work we're doing."
The award will provide for a diversification
of the partnership's successful research and development
efforts over the past three years. Research and
development by the ONNP, established in 2003 with
an initial Third Frontier award of $7.8 million,
benefits people with paralysis, spinal cord injuries,
pain/palsy, sleep apnea, strokes and urinary incontinence.
The technology involved in the project is similar
to the technology used by the late Christopher
Reeve for breathing control.
Internationally, the market for neurological and neurostimulation products is growing.
"Ohio is rich in world class hospitals and cutting edge biomedical partnerships," said Gov. Bob Taft, who announced the new funding awards on May 12. "The Biomedical Research Commercialization Program supports organizations that are involved in research and committed to commercializing new innovations that will create jobs in the future."
The BRCP was created to support biomedical and biotech research, leading to commercialization in Ohio and long-term improvements to the health of Ohioans. The awards given last week bring the total to $105.5 million in BRCP awards. The Third Frontier Program and its awards are funded by the 1998 Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement and the 2005 Bond Issue. The BRCP is a key component of the Third Frontier Program, a sweeping 10-year plan to set Ohio's course for national leadership in the high-tech economy of the 21st century.
This story was originally reported in the Case News
Center on May 18, 2006.
| 
